Increasingly Familiar Apple Lust Objects for 2016 and onwards

what's the best itunes/apple music alternative? that'd be the other use case for a mac mini htpc / apple tv - streaming music from my base mac

hmm the apple tv only has an hdmi out, so any optical out would probably have to be run from the tv, and removes the ability to hook up a usb dac or something (I don't have a receiver and refuse to get one)

well, i ran into some bad luck yesterday. i've had this awesome 2020 macbook pro 13" (M1 model, albeit one with only two ports! lol) for a couple months. An old acquaintance of mine was selling it in almost brand new condition and at a great price, so it was an instant huge upgrade on my old laptop.

anyway, the screen cracked out of nowhere. but not because i dropped it, or anything at all. i was using the computer. i closed it, just like i've closed computers a million times before. i went out back and played with my beloved dog for a while. i came back inside and lifted the lid, and there was a huge distortion on the left side of the screen, and then it spread to some vertical lines elsewhere. for a few minutes, the computer was still usable, but when i rebooted, it was much worse, just totally busted.

it turns out a lot of people are experiencing something similar (https://www.makeuseof.com/m1-macbook-screens-cracking/), and there's a class action thing brewing? i don't want or expect a ton of money out of any settlement, but it would be nice to get a reduced cost replacement. i knew what was coming when i talked to the geniuses, at it was a $550 fix. just way the fuck too expensive for me, especially when it could happen again

what are you all using for a NAS? I've finally realized I need one; I've got a macbook pro running plex off a hard drive but I'd rather have something else that I can just leave on, dedicated to streaming. and how is infuse different from plex?

I’ve heard good things about Synology NAS products

I’ve got a Western Digital PR2100 that is long in the tooth but still works well.

Yeah Synology products are great - I've had two 4-drive versions I bought used. Earlier this year I retired the DS413J which was ten years old (and I still got $150 for it used, without drives included). Bought a DS415+ which is also quite old (8 years) but much more capable, for $250 (Aus). Slotted the drives from the old one into it, it downloaded the latest OS and ticked away for about ten minutes, boom, same setup up and running. It will do lots of advanced stuff like run virtual machines, but for me it just feeds files over the network (including 4K data rate) and automatically backs things up. If a drive fails, it tells me, I pull the drive and swap it for another and it spends a day rebuilding all the parity etc. No loss of data or availability, never skipped a beat in the five years I had the earlier model. Configure and operate via a web interface. Indispensable for me.

if i order something direct from apple.com that won't ship for 8-10 weeks, am i right in thinking that 1) they won't run the credit card until it's about to ship and 2) i can cancel the order right up until it ships?

I don’t think so. I just checked back on my (US-based) MacBook order last August 12th and they charged my card on the 14th and told me it had shipped on the 16th.

Though I guess that a shorter timeframe.

Yeah I’m talking months here.

even if they run the card, they will refund it if you cancel...

and yes you should be able to cancel until it ships

or is being 'prepared for shipment' as they say

yeah that's my understanding. it's a vulgar amount of money though so i'm kind of interested in when they'll run the card too.

They don’t run the card until it ships.

source: my brother has a Studio Ultra due in June

Yeah, my experience is that you get a charge within a day or so of the shipping

new work macbook pro arrived. good stuff so far!

i have an SE 3 and so far it feels exactly like my SE 2, which is good because i liked my SE 2, but i literally can’t tell the difference. (normally i would have held on for another couple of years but the queue for my old phone had become very vocal)

AirPod Pros fuckin’ rule. Got them discounted through a work thing even though I wasn’t particularly clamoring, but I’ve been using them while working out these past two weeks and it’s made the experience significantly more enjoyable. Beyond the fact that they finally fit firmly in my ear and the sound quality is really good (considering the size and y’know streaming apps), the noise cancellation is the game changer.

I don’t have any other noise cancellation buds to compare them too, but it’s kinda freaky sci-fi shit when you activate them for the first time. Will make running on a treadmill actually fun with the right music and I can’t imagine getting on a plane again without them.

I hate both computers and new things, so I’m surprised to find myself saying that Monterey is kind of nice.

I finally gave in and got an SE 3 to replace my SE 1, which was becoming borderline unusable due to having only 16GB of storage space. I miss the smaller form factor and the home button that actually moves (haptic touch helps a bit but its still not the same), but its nice to not have to worry about deleting one app to make room for another one whenever you need to do something.

Unexpectedly appealing presentations yesterday. Thinking this might be the year I finally replace my 12 (!) yo MBP. Now question will be whether to go for the new Air or MBP

I'd go the Air unless you have a huge need for GPU grunt etc - the leap of an M2 over a 12 year old i5 would be pretty huge. Just max out the RAM if poss.

Always sad to hear again that my iMac will no longer be supported (late 2015). Them's the breaks! I'm gonna try to squeeze another couple years outta this, since I had to burn some cash to fix it last year.

The 13” mbp is pointless. I don’t understand who the market for it is. Get an air for less or a 14” mbp for more.

Gurman says there's a new 12" in the works which I'm v. v. excited for. Despite being slow as all hell and having the shit keyboard and no ports my 12" MB is my all-time favourite form factor, I think.

Likewise, that's very exciting - my M1 MBA is amazing but I really miss the weight of the 12", the only laptop that I could completely forget I was carrying.

Me otoh I’m holding out for a 15” MBP or - dare I hope? - MBA

just got one of these

https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-k8-pro-qmk-via-wireless-mechanical-keyboard?variant=39755425874009

it's pretty nice. i would say the only downside is how incredibly cool it makes me look.

https://i.imgur.com/0mPSKFP.gif

I got one of those but didn’t feel cool enough to use it so I gave it to my kid. He LOVES it.

i use an AEK II, it’s OK but i’m going to switch to the new apple keyboard with touchid for full 1pw / keychain integration

i was going to velcro my touchid keyboard to the bottom of my desk when this thing arrived, but it turns out you basically don't need one if you have an apple watch.

the combination of an apple watch and a mechnical keyboard also makes me look extremely cool.

I can’t wait until the watch has a notch

how much watch can a watch notch watch

Question: my mum, who's finally decided to replace her horrible 2000s PC desktop, is thinking of getting an iMac.

She basically just uses it for Photoshop, emails, web browsing and music - she already has an iPad and iPhone.

Are they suitable? She's in her 70s and very active but impatient with computers. We suggested an iMac because she keeps asking useless computer guys around to do her IT, and we figured Macs are more reliable - is that right?

Yes I'd say so

You might consider a Mini, if she already has a decent monitor, keyboard, mouse

Coming from a turn-of-the-century PC desktop, any Mac will likely seem like a walk in the park.

Hell, she can even still use Outlook on it, if she really wants to.

Desktop iMacs are pretty superpowered these days. I'd see if you can talk her into a MacBook, which will do everything she wants, is super easy to use, and might be less expensive.

How does she currently listen to music on her desktop pc? Is it by streaming or through mp3 files, or even by putting a CD in the cd drive?

Listens to Spotify occasionally, that's it!

My mom was in a similar boat a few years ago and bought herself an iMac. She’s loved it. Easy to use, malware less of a worry, can FaceTime without hassle, etc. Has bad eyesight and doesn’t really care as much about portability, so a MacBook wasn’t a consideration, but I agree that could have been another good option.

Ah yeah if you got a Mini then you'd need to get an external webcam for Facetime which can be faffy

Yeah, they had a home computer guy who made me really angry, kept their desktop locked in 2006 with obsessive malware and CC cleaner settings. I kept trying to tell them, "no one is ever trying to hack you and no one will!" and that maybe keeping Windows Mail locked in a mid-2000s version ultimately was probably worse for security? Anyway. Hoping she'll find the iMac nice and simple and self-contained to usee, and have less hassle. Thanks for yr (reassuring) thoughts!

Now I just have to migrate all her emails since 2001

it's about time to buy a new macbook, but honestly beyond a large screen I don't need anything special

trying to decide between buying new and riding it into the ground vs buying used every few years, ebay seems to have good refurbished stuff with warranty

Chuck it puts me in mind of my own process - my folks wanted a computer circa 2000, I was about to move interstate so I said OK, you need to get the least expensive Mac so that I will be able to support it over the phone while I'm interstate, my dad comes back from Harvey Norman all aglow with the killer deal he got on some IBM Aptiva running Windows ME. My blood pressure spiked but whatever, I said. Five years of weird glitches, several email-borne viruses, inadvertently-installed crapware, horrible "support" software for cheap gadgets like universal remotes and car satnav, janky system software, cheap programs from the bargain bin, clutter, and all of it supported by me trying to figure out an unfamiliar OS over the phone with who knows what had been installed randomly. Every Christmas was a day plus of uninstalls, rebuilds, etc. Anyway it had slowed to a crawl and was crippled by multiple layers of antivirus this and defender that. Dad asked about upgrading the RAM again or something and I just snapped and told him to bin the computer and buy a Mac Mini (G4 at that stage). In the intervening 17 years he has had 2 computer upgrades, both iMacs, and I've had one serious callout (although living back in the same state now) in that entire time. I had a series of escalating pleas to help with massive onslaughts of spam after their travel agent was hacked and their address ended up on a list, it took 2 years of persuading them that filters don't work, but I eventually convinced them to change email addresses and providers, and give their new address to friends. Since then ... nothing. They have an M1 iMac (replacing the previous i5 because it was ten years old, my brother is still using it to type reports!) and everything just works.
I'm sorry ... once I got started I had to keep going.

lukas, they aren’t super cheap but apple will have returns on their site eventually and those are good. just marginally cheaper than the deals (corp, student, membership club) on new though

You could also maybe hold out until the M2 MacBook Pros come out, there might be deals on used M1s and then you'd be on the current processor platform for longevity's sake.

Both good ideas, thanks.